The moment the meeting is over, I chase down Red to see what’s been eating at her. While her attitude certainly improved by the end of the meeting, there’s clearly more going on than she’s expressed so far.

“Why are you chasing me?” Red spins to face me as we both stand in a quiet hall in a protected part of the ruins. I left the others behind with a promise to meet up with Eshya for some training afterwards.

“I just wanted to see how you were going?” I say, “You’ve taken to training some of the people we freed. I also thought I’d thank you for that.”

“It wasn’t for you.” She replies, “I couldn’t stand the sight of them lazing about; eating, drinking, and shitting all over while others are working hard to keep them alive.”

“You’re not pushing them as hard as you did us?” I ask, knowing the answer already. We’re not as pressed now as we were back when Red was training me, while I didn’t understand all the circumstances at the time, she was trying her best to help us. “I don’t want to see people dead with no purpose.”

“I’m not an idiot.” She hisses in reply. “They’ll stay alive, but I want you to do something with the rest of them. I… If I have to hear anymore bitching and moaning from the worthless shits who refuse to work, then I swear I’m going to throw them into that lake.”

I nod slowly, taking in her words, while quietly panicking. I have no clue what to do about this. I’m almost tempted to throw them in the lake as she suggests, just so that I don’t have to come up with a better solution.

Trying not to let any of that show on my face, I resolve to talk with the others about it and come up with something a little less extreme.

“I’ll take care of it.” I say, keeping a straight back and an unflinching expression. “But Red, come to me about it next time.”

“What are you talking about?” She asks in confusion, taking a step back.

“Don’t just sit on that issue until I come chasing you down to ask you about it. If people are being worthless shits, then tell me about it. I might not have a better solution than you do at the moment, but I’d rather not leave issues like that unattended.

“Send me a message. Tell me what’s up, and I’ll make sure something is done about it.” I say.

“That’s not…” She makes a difficult expression, before chuckling to herself. “I guess I’m used to dealing with worthless, corrupt leadership. To the point where I don’t even complain like I should.”

She smiles viciously, but still cheerfully.

“You can bet that I’ll be sending a few more complaints your way.”

“It would be my pleasure,” I reply.

“And, hey, I’m down for all lovey-dovey shit that I’m sure you and your little lovers get up to. Still, when you get a bit more durable, maybe we can play.”

“I’ll think about it.” I reply, trying not to laugh as I realize that this is her way of showing me respect. Saying that I’m worth fucking. She really is a strange sort, but I do appreciate having her around.

“I’ll have to pass it by the others.” I say, considering her offer.

“You know, that’s what I don’t get.” Red says with a smile and a huff. “If all you want is to play around, why are you all taking things so seriously?”

“It’s not just playing around.” I reply, relaxing and leaning against the wall as the professional conversation warps into the personal. “While there is plenty of ‘play’, I’m quite serious and possessive of them all, probably to an unhealthy degree actually. So don’t take my relationship with them with them lightly.”

“You can do your own thing. Me? I like my freedom too much.” Red says waving me off while walking away, a little lighter of step than she was before.

Shaking my head, I turn away to chase down Eshya.

Our next class is scheduled for tomorrow morning, and we’ve still got plenty of free time until then. I’m going to have to rearrange our training so that I can visit the lower base and have a good talk with the ‘lazy shits’ that are taking up space down there.

I’m half concerned about what I’ll do if Red is right, and they’re not doing anything, and half concerned about what I’ll do if she’s just got a problem with the crafters doing their thing. I do recall her having rather extreme opinions regarding those who don’t learn how to fight.

Unfortunately, she isn’t entirely wrong considering our situation. If they don’t learn how to protect themselves, they’re going to end up getting hurt or killed in this dungeon.

I message Nel about it, but she doesn’t have much to say. She’s been running herself ragged this whole time, so it’s not surprising that she’s missed a few things.

“There you are.” Ria says, pulling me to a stop. “There were a few things I didn’t mention at the meeting. I didn’t think it was that important to bother everyone with it, since they’re all already aware.

“Firstly, here’s your pistol back, and your bullets. It’s the same as before, and I’ve checked all of the enchantments. Secondly, take this. It’s a key for the doors down here, and…” She casts some kind of spell over the slip of glass, “Now it’s bound to you, so no one else should be able to use it.”

“That seems useful.” I say, “I was about to call you up to open a door for me.”

“I know.” She says, sounding less than happy about that fact.

“Thank you.” I say, smiling and taking her gifts. “Everything has been going well for you?”

“Oh, yes.” Her expression turns joyful in a flash, “I’ve made some progress in my own project. I’ll show you when it’s done.”

“Oh, by all means.” I reply, wondering what it could be. “Message me when it’s ready.”

“I will.” She says, nodding thoughtfully while whispering a song under her breath. “That’s all I had to tell you. I have a class to go to, so… I’ll be seeing you.”

“I’d be interested in hearing your singing again.” I say as she’s leaving, “We’ve all been so busy.”

“Whenever I have a moment, I still do sing. Usually in the place where you first found me, the sounds carry even better now than before.”

“In that case, I’ll keep an ear open.” I say letting her leave.

I’ve collected quite the odd bunch of people, sometimes it’s all too easy to think of them by what they can do for me. But she’s not ‘the enchanter’ she’s a singer, and she’s so much more than that too.

Looking briefly over the thin glass sheet that she called the ‘key’, I get back to what I was doing.

“You left me waiting.” Eshya says as I finally get to her. She’s been taking a moment to do a little Skill training with Barry, perfecting her mana surge movements.

“It was like all of five minutes, Eshya.” I say, “We need to go into the dungeon, I have to deal with a few problems that have come up.”

“Even better,” Eshya says. “That’s where the juiciest prey is.”

“Calm it down,” I laugh at her enthusiasm. “We’ll have to be careful, since we don’t have the others with us this time.”

“We have potions, and we can run fast. We’ll be fine.” Eshya says.

“That’s what I said to Nel, but I don’t think it convinced her either.” I reply. “Let’s just hurry up and get strong enough so that we don’t have to worry about this anymore.”

“That’s the reason we train.” Eshya says with a long, tired sigh.

“You can lead us out, I’m not getting us lost today.” I say.

Eshya shakes her head at me while nursing a smile, but heads to the door regardless. I wave the key over the sigil that acts as a button to activate the door, and it slides open for us.

We delve into the familiar darkness of the ruins, our light wands clearing a small portion of the darkness away. I close the door behind me and confirm that it’s locked.

“Let’s hunt.” I say, letting my battle elf lead us out, while I watch our backs.

Vii opted out of this excursion, and Nel has her other work to return to. Even I’m not neglecting the other tasks that I need to work on, as I’m keeping some of my mind spare to message people.

Thresh, the arachne potion maker that I’ve been exchanging messages with isn’t as eager as I’d initially hoped. I get the feeling that she’s trying to figure out the solutions to her problems all on her own. I don’t press her too much, text isn’t the best platform to use to change a person’s mind, especially when they’re already determined in their course. I’ll have to find her in person and have a conversation.

Alo doesn’t seem to know anyone that would be helpful to us, and the only healers that I have in my contacts have proven rather obstinate and unwilling to even consider visiting anywhere in the ruins. The one that Nel is friends with sits firmly in that category.

The only good news is that I’ve managed to secure the assistance of the silver fox running the shop above us. She’s willing to do some sewing for us if we bring the materials, and I’m rather sure that she’s going to keep quiet about it all. I’ve sent our crafters the go ahead to make their requests of her, and I just hope that I don’t eventually regret it. Sele’s style does still concern me at times.

“Focus.” Eshya insists, shaking her head in exasperation as she continues to lead us through the darkness.

We’re carrying a small bottle of beast repellent that we’re going to use if we need to escape, but we’re hoping that we won’t need it. I haven’t got my usual armour, but I do have my pistol back, and between my reactive mana skin Skill, and my mana surge movement, I’m not expecting too much trouble.

“Do you hear anything?” I ask Eshya, hoping that she’s found us some sort of prey.

“I think…” Eshya tilts her head listening closely, “That I’ve got nothing. We might have to wait until we get to the forest.”

We continue marching along the empty halls, alternating between complete silence, and shouting to try and instigate some sort of attack, but we’re having no luck.

“The forest really might be the best place for us.” Eshya says. “So long as we’re careful and we stay out of the most dangerous territory. Those gremlins weren’t all that dangerous really.”

“One or two, no. If a horde comes down on us, we’ll be in trouble.” I say, looking around and shaking my head.

“I’ve got something.” Eshya says before using her surge step to charge into the darkness ahead. Copying her movement, I chase after her, my step slightly slower.

A beast cries out in pain as it’s struck through with a glowing blade. Eshya dances beneath the large gecko which struggles to fight back, while it presses itself up to the ceiling as if in hope to stay out of her reach. It’s already failing at that.

It’s rather well camouflaged and I’m not even sure how it is that Eshya managed to see the thing. I would’ve missed it had I been standing right under it, but she managed to see it from as far away as she did?

“How did you see it?” I ask her, rushing to her side.

“It cast a spell.” She says, “I noticed it with my mana senses.”

“Damn it.” I swear, realizing yet again how poorly I’ve been using my mana form.

Standing beneath the big lizard, which is at least three metres long, and clinging to the ceiling with four large legs. I push my mana into my muscular grouping, before sending a ripple through my legs to boost the force behind my jump.

The extra strength is enough to send me up at the beast with enough force that it’ll hurt the both of us, diverting my mana, I send a ripple through my arm and activate another Skill. The mana runs along my arm, gathering in my hand. The moment my fist lands on the tough skin of the beast, the mana, shaped into a flame spell, seeps out and into its flesh.

The spell only takes only a few moments to set alight, burning so quickly that the heat can’t escape fast enough from the impact point. The flesh expands as it superheats, turning into an explosion that tears a chunk out of the back of the gecko and quickly bursts out my direction.

In a panic I use my reactive mana skin, which thankfully saves me from receiving any burns from my own attack. It doesn’t, however, save me from falling, or the sudden deceleration that comes with landing.

Eshya tries to catch me, but that’s rather difficult with a sword in one hand. I fall onto my ass, sending a shock right through to my tail bone, a moment later, the beast falls from the roof.

“Kyra!” Eshya yells.

I shuffle back against the wall and dodge one of the beast’s swinging limbs by a hair. It’s pained screaming quiets for a second when it hits the ground but starts up again a moment later.

Eshya dives at it, trying to impale its head on her sword, but it’s already swinging a front leg around at her, forcing her to defend instead. Their back and forth continues, but neither is able to land a decisive blow on the other.

I stand up, my feet soaking in the blood that’s quickly spreading out over the ground around me. The wound I inflicted was quite serious, even if it hasn’t killed the beast outright.

I draw mana from the blood and return my focus to the fight.

When I see an opportunity, I leap at it, jumping atop the gecko’s back and using my mana drain at full power. The beast, already injured, slows, and Eshya is not the sort to let an opportunity slip by. Her sword is buried hilt deep into the beasts skull the second it’s attention slips.

I ride the oversized lizard through it’s post-life convulsions like a particularly lazy bull at a rundown rodeo. Though, after a few minutes the life fully drains away, and I’m left sitting atop a corpse.

“That wasn’t as good as it could’ve been.” Eshya says with a sigh. “Do you think there’s anything in it worth trading?”

“Doubtful.” I reply, already rubbing my sore injuries as I drain the beast’s mana away. I managed to empty out my mana crystal through the week we spent in training, and it’s nice to be filling it up again.

I throw Eshya a mana dense snack, while I work, and we both start training our mana forms. This is how we planned to make the most of our time in training.

We kill something, we drain its mana and boost our own, then we recklessly stress our mana forms to try and find the leaks, and then plug those leaks. It’s already proving an invaluable tactic for me, my numbers rising again at a respectable pace, I just hope it’ll help Eshya cross the final divide into liquid mana territory.

“What is it holding you back?” I ask her, as we work.

“I need to get my body used to mana just a little more.” She says, “I just can’t get the last step.”

“Is there something we’re missing?” I ask.

“No. Everyone, and everything just says that we need to merge our mana and our flesh. Nonsense like that.”

“Well, that’ll make it extra hard for me to kill my mana form if it’s ‘merged’ with my flesh.” I say. “Let’s hope that advice is bullshit.”

Sitting on the corpse and training in meditation for around half an hour, we eventually drain all the worthwhile mana from the dead gecko and move on. Eshya leads us down quite a few stairs and I can feel the chill in the air that precedes our arrival at the dungeon.

“I… we need to grow stronger.” She says, “Perhaps facing more difficult foes could help me get this final step.”

“If it’s too dangerous we retreat.” I say, just to ensure that she doesn’t lead us to our death.

“I know.” Eshya says. “It’ll be fine. We’re not some pathetic weak students like the rest of them up there. We’re better than that, stronger, smarter, talented. Some stupid beasts aren’t going to beat us.”

“Not unless we give up being smarter and do something truly dangerous and reckless, getting ourselves killed.” I say. “You’re not going to take us swimming, I hope?”

“I’m not as crazy as you are.” Eshya says, “Besides, we can call upon Red, or any of the others if we end up picking a fight that’s too much for us. It’ll be fine.”

“We do need the training.” I say, knowing that we were going to do this from the start regardless. “We’ll stay close to our base down there. They could do with the added patrol, as well as whatever beast parts we can bring them back. That way we’re also close by if we need to call for help.”

“It’ll be fine.” Eshya whispers again, as if she’s talking to herself rather than towards me.

The loud skittering of chitin on stone, legs in the thousands, comes pouring towards us, giving us only a moment’s notice before the beasts rush into the light of the hall ahead of us. A sound and species we’re more than familiar with.

The insects that attacked us that first day down here, six legs and as large as a small dog. The swarm fills the hall ahead of us, but with their speed there is no chance for us to retreat.

Burying the panic building inside of me, I firmly manipulate my mana flow and prepare for battle. Eshya, ahead and a little to the side of me, smiles nervously as she gets into stance and readies her sword.

A moment before the tide reaches us, Eshya bursts forwards. She lands among them, slashing through a half dozen in one easy swing as she kicks another into the stone ground at her feet. She shouldn’t be this powerful, but then again, she’s always been the most talented of us when it comes to fighting.

She moves her sword in quick and vicious arcs, spraying blood and splaying guts with every swing. Her blade is not the only weapon she uses as she kicks and stomps on others, her feet glowing slightly, the same as her blade, before impact.

The bugs are dying faster than I can keep up with, but even for all her violence there are some that manage to get by her. I step in and reach out to touch them. Punching can be more efficient at getting my mana deep into the flesh of the beasts that I fight, but there’s no reason I can’t manage a slightly lesser version of the invasive flame magic with just a touch.

With my hands and my feet, I tap each of the insects, popping them like balloons with a needle.

Only a few seconds after the battle has begun, it’s ended. The tide turns away from us and moves on down another tunnel. Likely they’ve realized now that they cannot hope to beat us.

Still, for all of the slaughter that we’ve committed here, we haven’t made it through unscathed. Both of us focused so much on countering their numbers by staying on the offensive, that we’ve let more than a few attacks slip by.

For me it’s nothing serious, a small gash on my upper thigh that should stop bleeding in a little while, and a few other similar scrapes on my arms.

Eshya has it slightly worse, a few of her injuries bleeding to the point where her life might be in danger if she’s not given treatment.

“Should we dig in?” She asks, kicking one of the insects at her feet.

“Are you okay?” I ask, running my hands along her arms and legs, checking over each injury to confirm that she’s not concealing anything worse while I try to uncork the healing potion that I’ve brought with me.

“I’m fine.” She reassures me. “Let’s get the mana out of these while they’re still fresh. With how small they are, and with they’re guts spilled like this, the mana won’t last long.”

“After we get these injures fixed.” I say, forcing the potion into her mouth. She reluctantly swallows, pulling a strange expression, before throwing the glass bottle aside.

“Taint of the beast! That shit tastes like… well, shit.”

“Well, don’t get hit next time.” I advise her, watching as her larger injuries start to close back up. I sigh in relief and get to work.

There isn’t as much mana in the bugs as I’d like, and what’s there is already leaking out, but it’s still worth picking up. The broken remains clearly don’t carry enough mana to be worth anything in trade, so I leave them behind.

“Let’s keep going.” Eshya says, a grim smile rising on her lips.

“Yeah…” I say, rolling my shoulders and taking a few deep, calming breaths. “Let’s hurry and catch up with Red and the others. We can’t be the weakest forever.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 820 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Skin 0% 49% Muscle 54% 54% Mind 0% 72% Cardiovascular 0% 34% Misc. 0% 29% Efficiency 54% 82%

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

-Multi-mind

-Tag

-Mana surge movement

-Mana surge punch

-Reactive mana skin

-Infused delayed Casting

-Fire burst punch